The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for separating solid polymer and liquid diluent from a mixture of those materials.
In many polymerization processes for the production of normally solid polymer, a stream is formed which is a slurry of particulate polymer solids suspended in a liquid medium, ordinarily the reaction diluent. A routine technique for separating the polymer and the diluent has involved flashing the diluent into vapor by reducing the pressure on the slurry. Such a technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,872. In order to reuse the recovered diluent in the polymerization process, it has been necessary to condense the diluent vapors to liquid. The compression and condensation of the recovered vapors is a significant part of the total expense involved in the polymerization process.
An object of the present invention is to reduce the expense involved in the reuse of diluent that is separated from a slurry of a polymerization process.
Other objects, advantages, and features of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following discussion.